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Coursework 1: Textual and Theoretical Analysis How does the writing of Joseph Conrad in 'Heart of Darkness ' express the experience of living a displaced life?
Conrad can be described as a truly displaced writer and his experience is closely mirrored by the journey which Marlow, the chief protagonist in Heart of Darkness, undertakes. In 'Youth ', Marlow 's first words are, “there are those voyages that seem ordered for the illustration of life” 1, and 'Heart of Darkness ' takes the reader on such a voyage, alluding not only to the human condition but also, more personally, to the displaced life which Marlow experiences. This essay will explore the literary techniques Conrad employes throughout the novella to convey the experience of displacement through the structure of the tale, rather than through the tale itself. The world which Conrad presents to the reader is, “nihilistic, nightmarish, arbitrary”, 2 a fitting, if somewhat damning, modernist impression. Conrad, originally drawn to Britain “by the civilisation and stability of english life”, was “always aware of the darkness underlying its imperial and urban light, as 'Heart of Darkness ' makes quite clear”.3 Whilst Conrad can be seen as a precursor to modernism it has been said that his “literary output emerges as a paradigm of modernist sensibility and aspiration”,4 a method perhaps employed as it opened new techniques to Conrad which would better allow him to convey his chosen meaning. Modernist techniques allowed Conrad the freedom to explore the world from a different viewpoint than was typical of other authors writing in the same period, arguably widening “the scope of fiction”5 by presenting his actors in “grandiose nature”6 instead of within society. His subsequent preoccupation with displacement, not only physically, but also within ones self on separation from
1 Conrad Joseph, Youth, Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc, 1903 p. 3-4 2 Bradbury Malcolm & McFarlane James, Modernism: A Guide to
Conrad can be described as a truly displaced writer and his experience is closely mirrored by the journey which Marlow, the chief protagonist in Heart of Darkness, undertakes. In 'Youth ', Marlow 's first words are, “there are those voyages that seem ordered for the illustration of life” 1, and 'Heart of Darkness ' takes the reader on such a voyage, alluding not only to the human condition but also, more personally, to the displaced life which Marlow experiences. This essay will explore the literary techniques Conrad employes throughout the novella to convey the experience of displacement through the structure of the tale, rather than through the tale itself. The world which Conrad presents to the reader is, “nihilistic, nightmarish, arbitrary”, 2 a fitting, if somewhat damning, modernist impression. Conrad, originally drawn to Britain “by the civilisation and stability of english life”, was “always aware of the darkness underlying its imperial and urban light, as 'Heart of Darkness ' makes quite clear”.3 Whilst Conrad can be seen as a precursor to modernism it has been said that his “literary output emerges as a paradigm of modernist sensibility and aspiration”,4 a method perhaps employed as it opened new techniques to Conrad which would better allow him to convey his chosen meaning. Modernist techniques allowed Conrad the freedom to explore the world from a different viewpoint than was typical of other authors writing in the same period, arguably widening “the scope of fiction”5 by presenting his actors in “grandiose nature”6 instead of within society. His subsequent preoccupation with displacement, not only physically, but also within ones self on separation from
1 Conrad Joseph, Youth, Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc, 1903 p. 3-4 2 Bradbury Malcolm & McFarlane James, Modernism: A Guide to
Bibliography: Books Bradbury Malcolm & McFarlane James, Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930, UK: Penguin Books Ltd, 1991, Conrad Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Penguin Classics, 2007, Conrad Joseph, Youth, Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc, 1903 Maes-Jelinek Hena, York Notes Advanced: Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Longman: York Press, 2004 Stape John, The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad, Cambridge University Press, 1996, Journals Said Edward, Conrad: The Presentation of Narrative, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Vol 7(2), 1974, 7